President Abdul Hamid is scheduled to address the 16th session of the 11th parliament this afternoon.

An Omicron case has been detected in Beijing, officials in the Chinese capital said yesterday, as the country battles multiple outbreaks of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant ahead of the Winter Olympics.

The United States’ Omicron wave is beginning to recede in New York and other major cities, official data showed this week, as France reported fewer hospitalization despite record cases.

Social media giant Facebook , now known as Meta Platforms, faces a 2.3 billion pound plus ($3.2 billion plus) class action in Britain over allegations it abused its market dominance by exploiting the personal data of 44 million users.

A Gazipur court yesterday placed the key accused on a three-day remand in the Sayeda Ghaffar Khaleque murder case.

Representatives of Myanmar’s junta are expected to challenge the jurisdiction of the World Court to hear allegations the country committed genocide against its Rohingya minority in a fresh round of hearings from Feb 21, the attorney general of Gambia, which brought the case, told Reuters on Friday.

Bus operators blatantly ignored the government directive to operate at half capacity yesterday – the first day of the order coming into effect.

There has been an alarming rise in Covid-19 transmission and the situation will be disastrous if the government’s 11-point restriction is not followed, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said yesterday.

The temperature at night may fall further in the next two days, said a government weather bulletin.

The by-polls to Tangail-7 (Mirzapur) is being held today.

Bangladesh logged six more Covid-19-linked deaths and 4,378 new cases in 24 hours preceding 8:00am yesterday as the deadly infections keep rising in the country.

Prof Tajmeri SA Islam, adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, has been sent to jail in a case filed over obstructing police from performing duties during an anti- government demonstration of the party in the capital’s Uttara in 2018.

The BNP has decided to reschedule its 32 rallies in different districts due to a sharp rise in Covid infection rate.

Five people were arrested in Natore on Thursday night over the gang rape of a teenage girl.

Five people, severely injured in a helium cylinder explosion in Nangalkot upazila of Cumilla, were brought to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery yesterday for better treatment.

Foreign Minister Abdul Momen yesterday said the government would engage in lobbying if required to further the country’s interests.

The recently published Human Rights Watch report is “one-sided, unacceptable and politically-motivated”, said Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud yesterday.

Myanmar junta has ordered all military personnel not to answer letters related to arrest warrants or summons from the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the Argentinian judiciary on the human rights violations of the Rohingya and other communities.

On September 30 during the 1971 Liberation War, Ramajan Ali Miah, along with others, was killed by the Pakistani forces in Mahmudpur area of Tangail’s Gopalpur.

The World Health Organization approved two new Covid-19 treatments yesterday, growing the arsenal of tools along with vaccines to stave off severe illness and death from the virus.